Quick thoughts on the Canon Eos R and the Fuji X-T3
I’m busy working on a project at the moment, so I don’t have a lot of time to do a full write-up, but I did want to offer a few thoughts on the latest releases from Canon and Fuji. Canon launched its full-frame mirrorless system at an event in Hawaii yesterday, and today, Fuji announced the latest in its X-Series lineup, the X-T3.
The Eos R Launch
I actually managed to catch the live stream of the event where Canon launched its new system, and as I was watching it something struck me. The way they were talking about this was really odd. They went to great pains to point out how this was a new system, and they talked at great lengths about the new lenses and the new mount design. They also placed a heavy emphasis on this being a way to add to your existing canon setup. What they only briefly mentioned was the actual camera.
They also made a strong point that this was only the beginning, but I get the impression, that this is more of a beta entry into the new R system, based on how that press conference went. I suspect that a lot of the work went into developing it as a system, and developing the pits, but for whatever reason, the actual camera wasn’t what they, either wanted to release, or it was all they could do technologically at the time.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an ok system, and for Canon shooters, it’s probably a good entry, but it seems to be very limited compared to the competition, especially when it comes to video. On the positive side, it offers what is effectively the Canon 5D Mark IV in terms of image quality, for considerably less than the cost of a 5D Mark IV. The reaction has understandably been mixed, but it seems to have been less of a cataclysm of outrage that the Nikon launch was. Maybe people got it out of their system.
Again, I haven’t had enough time to fully digest everything so I will have more thoughts in the future.
The Fuji X-T3
Today Fuji announced the latest iteration of its X-T line and it seems like a significant evolution of this camera. Again, I won’t go into all the specs, but it has a new sensor (it’s still X-Trans - so depending on your opinion, that’s either a good or a bad thing) with much of the emphasis of this camera being on both speed and video quality.
It seems like a fine evolution, and I have no major gripes. If you want to shoot video on Fuji this seems like the best option available so far, and kudos to the Fuji engineers for really pushing what is achievable with the format to the max. Most of the initial reaction seems really positive. Fuji seems to be really intent on pushing the video capabilities of their line as far as possible., and the internal 4K 60p and 10 bit are impressive. It's also interesting how they’re using h.265.
I’m not sure if the improvements in the sensor will make a massive difference to still image quality, as most of the improvements seem to be targeted at the speed and performance of the sensor (again, I haven’t read too much about this at the moment). Autofocus now seems to be among the best in class, at least according to initial reviews.
There are a few minor things with it that I would have liked to see implemented differently. The lack of IBIS isn’t a huge deal for me, but I would have liked to see it for video. I would have also liked to see a fully articulating screen. Given how good the video looks, and the improvements in video autofocus, this could have made a great hybrid camera for vlogging, and this is a bit of a let down for that, but again, a very minor point as most people probably don’t care about vlogging. Also, the battery.
The only thing I did find odd is where this camera is positioned. Lots of people were referring to it as the flagship of Fuji’s camera line, but I thought that was the X-H1. Also, given that the X-H1 is only a couple of months old, the technology in that camera now looks seriously dated compared to the new one. I think it confuses the lineup a little, and I’m not sure why they couldn’t have waited a few months to release the X-H1 with this sensor and processor.
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